Atlassian’s suite of tools has long empowered teams to deliver exceptional results, but with the launch of Atlassian Focus the company is taking enterprise strategy and planning to a whole new level. Designed to complement Jira Align, Focus provides leaders with a centralized platform to connect strategic priorities to execution, ensuring visibility, alignment, and adaptability across the organization.
This pivotal innovation addresses a critical gap in enterprise strategy management. As organizations face mounting pressure to deliver measurable outcomes, Atlassian Focus emerges as a solution that enables leaders to prioritize Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM)—bridging the divide between strategy and execution.
We take a closer look at what Atlassian Focus is, how it aligns with Jira Align, and why it represents a pivotal shift in enterprise strategy management. Along the way, we’ll share insights from our thought leader and Valiantys Enterprise Strategy Planning expert Aslam Cader, who was part of the journey in shaping this transformative solution.
Why Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM)?
The urgency for effective Strategic Portfolio Management has never been clearer. According to Gartner®, “by 2025, 70% of digital investments will fail to deliver the expected business outcomes, due to the absence of a strategic portfolio management (SPM) approach.”¹ This stark reality underscores the risks of disconnected strategy and execution, and highlights the need for solutions that prioritize outcomes over outputs.
What Is Atlassian Focus?
Atlassian Focus is a next-generation enterprise strategy and planning platform designed to bridge the gap between leadership priorities and team execution. Where Jira Align excels in connecting work to strategic goals, Focus adds a layer of flexibility, visibility, and real-time decision-making that empowers leaders to prioritize outcomes over outputs.
Key Features of Focus:
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Centralized strategy management: Provides a single platform for leaders to map and manage goals, teams, work, and funds against strategic priorities.
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Customizable hierarchies: Offers up to 10 levels of strategic hierarchy, allowing organizations to adapt the tool to their unique structures and processes.
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Real-time insights: Tracks progress, budgets, and performance metrics, enabling leaders to pivot strategies when necessary.
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Integration with Jira and Jira Align: Seamlessly pulls in data from existing team tools, creating a unified view of work and strategy.
Focus and Jira Align: Complementary Powerhouses
Jira Align has been the go-to platform for organizations scaling agile practices, enabling them to connect team-level execution to strategic goals. Focus builds on this foundation by addressing challenges at the strategic and leadership levels:
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While Jira Align excels in providing execution visibility, Focus emphasizes strategic alignment and planning at the executive level.
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Focus shifts the conversation from outputs to outcomes, allowing leaders to evaluate progress in terms of desired results.
- Jira Align is known for its structured approach, and Focus complements this by introducing configurable views and hierarchies for greater adaptability.
Aslam Cader, who worked closely with Atlassian in shaping Focus, reflects on the journey:
“Focus bridges the gap between strategic priorities and execution. Many tools are great at tracking work, but they struggle to provide meaningful visibility into strategy—or vice versa. Focus introduces a new way of working: mapping investments and outcomes in real-time, creating alignment from the top down and the bottom up.”
What Makes Atlassian Focus Stand Out?
Atlassian Focus is not just a product; it’s a new way of thinking about strategic portfolio management. By building on the success of Jira Align, Focus introduces a suite of features that allow leaders to prioritize outcomes over outputs and visualize progress across teams, projects, and funds.
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Strategic alignment made simple: Focus connects strategy to execution with customizable hierarchies and real-time tracking of goals, budgets, and team performance.
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AI-powered insights: Leaders gain access to AI-driven recommendations, enabling faster, smarter decisions.
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Seamless integration: As part of Atlassian’s ecosystem, Focus works seamlessly with Jira Align, Jira, and Confluence, creating a single source of truth for all teams.
This is a game-changer for organizations seeking to adapt and thrive in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments.
Valiantys and Atlassian Focus: A Shared Vision for Enterprise Transformation
At Valiantys, we pride ourselves on being more than just implementers of technology—we’re collaborators, innovators, and problem-solvers. Over the past year, our experts, including Aslam Cader, have worked closely with Atlassian, sharing customer insights and real-world feedback to ensure that Focus addresses the challenges leaders face in strategic portfolio management. This collaboration reflects Valiantys’ commitment to driving innovation and helping clients achieve tangible results.
As Aslam highlights,
“The success of Focus isn’t just about the tool itself—it’s about the mindset it enables. Focus empowers leaders to move away from managing processes to prioritizing people, outcomes, and purpose. It’s a solution that supports transformation, but the leadership must come from within.”
Let’s Focus on What Matters Most
As Atlassian Focus gears up for general availability in February 2025, organizations have an opportunity to redefine their approach to strategy and execution. Whether you’re currently using Jira Align or exploring new ways to enhance enterprise agility, Focus offers a powerful complement to your existing tools.
As a leading global IT consultancy, Valiantys is dedicated to enabling new ways of working with Atlassian. We go beyond technology implementation to serve as trusted advisors, helping organizations align tools, processes, and people with strategic priorities. Our Enterprise Strategy and Planning practice is here to guide your journey every step of the way.
To accelerate organizations in their Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) journey, Valiantys has introduced the SPM Accelerator—a holistic solution that combines strategic consultancy, hands-on training, enterprise coaching, and tailored custom-developed configurations. Designed to unlock the full potential of Focus, the SPM Accelerator ensures that leaders can achieve faster, sustainable outcomes by aligning strategy with execution and focus on outcomes seamlessly.
With the SPM Accelerator, Valiantys enables organizations to:
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Quickly adopt and maximize the value of Atlassian System of Work with Focus.
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Build leadership capabilities in managing portfolios with an outcome-driven mindset.
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Tailor workflows, hierarchies, and integrations to match unique business needs.
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Foster sustainable change with continuous coaching, training and best-practice implementations.
At Valiantys, our mission aligns closely with Atlassian’s—to unleash the potential of every team and create a connected enterprise where strategy and execution work in harmony. With Atlassian Focus and Valiantys’ SPM Accelerator, we provide not just the tools, but also the expertise and guidance to help organizations thrive in today’s complex, fast-paced environment.
If you’re curious about how Atlassian Focus and SPM Accelerator can transform your organization or want to explore how to align strategy with execution seamlessly, our enterprise strategy experts are here to guide you. Connect with aslam.cader@valiantys.com today to start the conversation and unlock the potential of Atlassian Focus for your organization.
About Aslam Cader
With over a decade of experience in Enterprise Strategy and Planning practice, Aslam Cader a Principal Consultant, Leadership Coach, is a trusted advisor to organizations navigating complex transformations. As an Atlassian-certified consultant and co-author of Scaling Agile with Jira Align, he specializes in helping leaders connect strategic priorities with execution. His unique approach combines tool expertise with leadership coaching, empowering organizations to achieve sustainable success
¹ Gartner, Elevate Your Discussion to Drive Strategy Execution, Anthony Henderson, January 9, 2024. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the US and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
